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Logan shared a look with his mum, and they both grinned.
“So, you’re staking out the hotel?” his mum said with a sly smile. “Does Dougal know?”
“No. And let’s keep it that way.”
“My lips are sealed.”
Yeah, right. As soon as he was out of sight, she’d be on the phone to her knitting cronies. And who knew what trouble they’d cause.
“I’m serious,” he said. “No stirring up Knit or Die. No spreading rumors. This is my work. No using it as an excuse to wind up Dougal.”
“I wouldn’t dare.” Although she sounded affronted, he detected a maniacal glint in her eye.
He sighed. He’d done what he could to shut her down, and it was out of his hands now. “What can I do to help?” He shoved up the sleeves of his sweater.
“Nothing. The kids will lay the table. You can go fetch your dad.” Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she lowered her voice. “He’s watching porn in the shed.”
“You can’t embarrass me, so you might as well stop trying,” he said as he headed for the back door. “I was a cop. I’ve seen it all.”
“Challenge accepted,” his mother said as she checked the oven.
Even in her sixties, Shona McBride was still full of energy, looked years younger, and got up to a ton of mischief with her friends from the knitting club. Right now, the bizarre war the women of Knit or Die periodically waged against Dougal and the old men who played dominoes had ended, but it wouldn’t take much to start it up again. Both sides were always itching for a fight.
Logan stepped out into the icy wind and jogged down the path to the shed. He didn’t knock, but then he knew his dad wasn’t really watching porn. You’d have to know how to work a computer for that, or a phone. Something Robert McBride, Rab to his friends, hadn’t mastered. Instead, he was bent over his workbench, tying flies for fishing.
“Dinner’s ready,” Logan said.
His dad grunted as he continued to tie off the fly, winding red silken thread around a serious-looking hook bedecked with feathers. Although Logan hadn’t inherited his dad’s love of fishing, he had inherited his build. At seventy, his father still had the same lean, muscular build he’d had Logan’s whole life. The only difference between them was his father’s gray hair and the lines on his face. Which boded well for Logan.
“Are you coming?” Logan said.
“In a minute.” When his dad was in the middle of something, there was no hurrying him, or stopping him—he did things at his own pace.
“I’ll tell Mum you’re coming.”
His only reply was another grunt. Logan grinned as he jogged back up the path to the house. He worked with an American guy they called Grunt, because he rarely talked, and Logan had once introduced him to his dad. It had been hysterical. A whole conversation in grunts, snorts and growls. It had been like watching an episode of Animal Planet.
“He’s coming,” he told his mum when he opened the door, grateful the house was warm.
“I’ll bet he is.” His mum never seemed to get anxious over her husband’s antisocial tendencies. If he didn’t come in for dinner, she made him a plate for later and got on with her life.
“Hey.” Logan ruffled his son’s hair as he set the table. “How was school?”
Drew grunted. There were no prizes for guessing who he took after personality-wise.
“I’ll take that as you had a good day,” Logan said with a smile.
As they settled in at the pine table in the corner of the kitchen, Logan glanced around the room, feeling the tension of the day melt from him at the sense of being home. His mother had decorated the room in lemon and blue, as she liked bright colors and couldn’t grasp the concept of neutral decorating. Each room in her house was a different color scheme, and she was always tinkering with it. He wasn’t overly fond of the orange living room, but the kitchen was warm and welcoming, with the radiator blasting in the corner and the smell of good food.
As they passed around the dishes of beef stew, roast potatoes, and bread, Darcy elbowed her older brother. “Ask him,” she hissed.
Logan wasn’t sure whether he should pretend he hadn’t heard the order or give in to curiosity. Fortunately, he didn’t have to decide because after a scowl at his sister, Drew looked over at him. “Can I go into Fort William on Saturday?”
Their nearest big town was about an hour away, and they often popped over there for the things they couldn’t get locally. This was the first time Drew had asked to go alone.
“You want to tell me why?” Logan loaded his plate as he watched his son.
A slow pink blush filled his cheeks. “No reason. Just some kids from school getting together. We thought we might see a movie and, you know, hang out.”
